Kids’ Top 100 Searches of 2009

• YouTube, Google, and Facebook top the list
• Sex and Porn round out the top 5
• Kids spend most of their time searching for music related topics (30%), then TV/movie related topics (12%).
• The most popular celebrity kids searched for was Michael Jackson. Taylor Swift came in second.
• Team Jacob won over Team Edward, with Taylor Lautner coming in at #80 and Robert Pattinson being nonexistent in the top 100.
• Other top celebs on kids’ list of searches include Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Lil Wayne, Megan Fox, Eminem, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, Black Eyed Peas, Jonas Brothers, Rihanna, and Chris Brown.
• Kids are searching for shopping sites like eBay, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.

Top Searches of 2009 – Boys vs. Girls

• YouTube, Google, and Facebook show up in the top three of both boys’ and girls’ search terms.
• Boys’ #4 search term was Sex while girls’ #4 search term was Taylor Swift. Girls were still interested in Sex, though, with the term coming it at #5.
• Boys’ most popular celebrity search term was Michael Jackson.
• Boys’ top 25 search terms were mainly comprised of social networking sites, various websites, shopping sites, inappropriate terms, and games.
• Girls’ top 25 search terms were main comprised of social networking sites, as well as music and entertainment/celebrity terms.
• Both boys’ and girls’ most popular search terms were related to music, though it was higher in terms of percentages for girls at 42% compared to boys at 22%.
• Boys search more adult topics compared to girls (13% vs. 2%).

Top Searches of 2009 – By Age Group

• Youtube, Facebook, and Google comprise the top 3 search terms for kids.
• Sex comes in at #4 for teens and tweens while porn comes in #4 for kids 7 and under.
• Taylor Swift was the top searched for term among teens. For tweens and kids 7 and under, it was Michael Jackson.
• Teens and tweens spend most of their search time online on music related subjects (34% and 27%).
• Kids under the age of seven spend most of their search time online on games (23%).
• Kids under the age of seven are conducting searches for P2P sites like Limewire and Mininova.

…

There is a new Facebook worm which will direct you to a link containing pornography. The following are the details of the worm:

The hook to the new Facebook worm appears in a friend’s profile as the racy image at left.

Click the image, and you are brought to a Web page with the same image.

Analysis by famous malware analyst Nick Fitzgerald calls this a CSRF
(Cross-Site Request Forgery) attack, a cousin to cross-site scripting:

A sequence of iframes on the exploit page call a sequence of other pages and scripts, eventually resulting in a form submission to Facebook “as if” the victim had submitted a URL for a wall post and clicked on the “Share” button to confirm the post.

Afterward, you are redirected to a porn site.

AVG’s Roger Thompson writes about the same issue to note that its LinkScanner protection blocks this attack and that another hook to the same malicious site is operating as “the popular farmville app” (I’ve never heard of it). All of the authors say that this is something that needs to be fixed by Facebook, and they expect it to be fixed very soon.

Source:
PC Magazine Security Watch

Scareware is a type of malware designed to trick victims into purchasing and downloading useless and potentially dangerous software.

Scareware, which generates pop-ups that resemble Windows system messages, usually purports to be antivirus or antispyware software, a firewall application or a registry cleaner. The messages typically say that a large number of problems — such as infected files — have been found on the computer and the user is prompted to purchase software to fix the problems. In reality, no problems were detected and the suggested software purchase may actually contain real malware. If the user falls for the scam, he will lose the money he paid for the useless software and he may also make his computer unusable. Frequently, the message window has a clickjacking feature that takes the user to the attacker’s Web site or initiates a malware download if the user clicks “Cancel” or the “X” to close the window.

Source:
What is scareware?

You should always have an Internet Security Suite, installed on each of your family’s computers.

Many thanks to Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff and his staff for creating the Utah Child Protection Registry.

The Utah Child Protection Registry is a free program provided by the State of Utah that helps you stop adult-oriented solicitations from being targeted at you and your family. The program allows you to protect:

* E-Mail Addresses
* Mobile Phone Numbers
* Instant Messenger IDs
* Fax Numbers

Companies and marketers that send adult-oriented messages, such as those promoting pornography, alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, and gambling are required to screen their mailing lists with the State of Utah and remove registered addresses and numbers before they send their solicitations. Marketers that fail to remove registered addresses face felony charges as well as substantial civil and criminal fines.

You can register your addresses here

Author and columnist, Rebecca Hagelin has written a wonderful article for http://townhall.com.

Our teenagers are more sexually active than any generation of youth before them. They also are consuming more pornography and compromising basic moral standards more often. It seems that many of them have lost not only their innocence, but their conscience, too.

The plethora of negative and immoral behaviors glorified by a media world that’s gone stark raving mad — combined with graphic, non-judgmental sex education and a highly sexualized culture in general — causes many of them to lose understanding of what is wrong and what is right.

When a young child’s sensibilities are constantly violated, and he begins to ignore the natural pangs of guilt after yielding to cultural pressures, he can end up being miserable, and begins to develop a hard heart and weak spirit.

If we as parents blindly turn our own hearts away from them because we’re scared of confrontation, or because we’re too lazy to do “the hard stuff” like fight for their integrity, we have a hand in dooming their young spirits to inner torment. And, ultimately, if the pattern continues, to the loss of basic decency and sensitivity to evil.

In chapter 32, the Psalmist reflects on the misery that comes with ignoring a guilty conscience:

“When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long. Day and night you punished me, my strength was gone as in the summer heat.”

Do you really want your child to live that way?

It’s critical as a parent to take control and do everything in your power to make certain that the culture does not molest your child’s young mind. Setting standards for media consumption can help avoid a lot of regrets, especially when it comes to the evil of pornography. But since we are all sinners, we also need to learn to recognize when our children might be feeling uncomfortable and guilty — and offer them hope and a way out of their despair.

Talk often about God’s miracles of forgiveness, redemption and restoration. These concepts are foreign to our modern world, yet they are as transformational today as they were for the Pslamist and when God offered his forgiveness to a sinful world as he sent his son to atone for the sins of all who would accept him.

I John 1:9 promises: “When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Our children experience the beautiful gifts of wisdom and grace when we help them develop their conscience and teach them how to respond to feelings of guilt. We need to be bold about sharing with them the life-giving power and joy that comes with confession. Tears of repentance over wrongs done makes our hearts strong, yet maleable in the hands of a a loving God. Ignoring our sins turns us into desperate, weak souls with hearts of stone.

In Psalm 32, the author actually begins the passage with what we can look forward to when we confess our sins to the loving and merciful God:

“Happy is the person whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs have been pardoned. Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty, and in whom there is nothing false.”

The forgiveness and joy that comes with sincere repentance is the best news mankind has ever heard! Have your own children heard it?

The original article can be found here:
The Death of Conscience

Please take a look at Rebecca’s website here:
30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family

You can find her book on Amazon here:
30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family